PURITA “Puring” Cruz, 74, is just waiting for a notice from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) before she could start receiving her social pension.
After 14 years of depending from her generous neighbors and from the occasional endowments from her children and grandchildren, Puring sees the light of finally financing herself.
“I would save my social pension, of course, so that I would not be a burden to my children,” she said in Filipino.
Under the government’s social-pension program for indigent senior citizens, Puring, if approved, would receive a P500 monthly stipend.
Aside from providing for herself, she is also looking forward to fixing her house, which is perforated after a series of reblocking in Kasanduan, Quezon City. Ambitious, maybe, but for Puring, the house is the only possession she has after her husband died years ago and after her children left for their own families. She is now living alone in her small abode and is visited by her grandchildren sometimes.
“I really need to repair this house because the roof is unstable. I think this house is decent enough and is enough for me as an elderly,” she said.
Puring passed her application form and requirements, has undergone the confidential-informant procedure, and was already interviewed. She plans on going to the barangay office to inquire on the date of her confirmation and has already thought of ways she could spend her pension.
Yet, it took her more than a decade to finally apply for it. “It was only this year when the government personnel came here and offered us the social pension. In fact, I would not know it if they never came,” she said.
It was in 2011 when the program started after the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 was enacted, but surprisingly, Puring and other senior citizens in Kasanduan never knew about it. Most of them, like Puring, just heard of it this year.
The senior citizens of Kasanduan, however, are not the only elders who just applied for social pension. Out of the 4.8 million senior citizens aged 65 and older in the country, as per the coverage of the program in 2015, only 19 percent can avail of the pension.
Regionally, out of the 43,116 targeted senior citizens in the National Capital Region, only 43 percent, or 18,441 elders, were accounted for in the program. However, more than the weakness of its information dissemination, DSWD Social Pension Officer Analiza Salud credited the low turnout of indigent senior citizens to the small amount of social workers in the agency.
Social workers are tasked to go to different places, especially in far-flung areas, to look for possible beneficiaries. Yet, these workers are only job orders or workers on call. They do not have the chance of working regularly to continue the oculars.
Still, although there are elders who are not yet accounted for, the number of indigent senior citizens is increasing every year. From the 138,960 indigent senior citizens in 2011, the number has increased to 1.3 million this year with the greatest leap of 493,965 recorded in 2015.
To further increase the number of beneficiaries of the program, DSWD and Congress widened the coverage of the program last year to include senior citizens age 60 and older.
Salud said the DSWD accepts walk-in seniors and referrals from other groups, non-governmental organizations and from the barangay to accommodate more senior citizens.
As defined in the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, a senior can be tagged as an indigent or beneficiary if they are frail and sickly, with disability, has no pension from the government or private institutions and has no regular source of income or support from families. Possible beneficiaries will be approved by DSWD regional offices and will then be endorsed by the local government in their location.
“Not all the criteria can be satisfied. It still depends on the assessment and the actual condition of the elderly because there are those who are not sick but do not have financial support and pension and they are still poor,” Salud said.
Puring may look physically healthy and strong, but she has hypertension and needs to take three different medication to treat her condition. Her medication costs P60 a month.
To sustain the maintenance of her medicine, she accepts jobs like babysitting in her neighborhood at P200 a day. Otherwise, she receives P500 or grocery from her children when they visit, enough for her to survive in a week.
“The money lasts for me. In fact, I sometimes give some to my grandchildren when they come here,” she said.
Yet, there can be times when she both doesn’t have a child to babysit and cash gift from her children, just like this week. Fortunately, there are neighbors who give her ready-to-eat food.
That is why it is important for Puring to get a monthly stipend to finance her medicine and her daily basic needs.
However, a P500 monthly stipend is too meager for a senior to live decently on. The amount of a daily-living wage for a family of six is P1,119, or P186.5 per person. Even Salud recognizes this shortage that is why the DSWD and a number people’s organizations are lobbying for the increase of the stipend to P1,500 a month. Aside from repairing her house and financing her needs, Puring dreams of going back to her province once she receives her pension. In her 57 years in Quezon City, she has gone to Bicol only once.
“I really need money. I also want to go back to our province so my relatives would know that I am still alive,” she said. Out of her nine siblings, only two are alive and Puring wants to know their condition. She also wants to check on their 24-hectare land, which, according to her, was sold in the amount of P100,000. “I want to know what I can do for my family. I am also planning to talk to the buyer if I can repay the land,” she added.
After that, she would like to return to her humble house as her children are living in Montalban.
Even though she doesn’t want to be a burden to them, she really hopes that her family, especially her children, will be there when she needs them.
“I think Lea and Ernie will not abandon me,” she said.